14th Iowa NWA Severe Storms and Radar Conference

[Chris Karstens]

The Central Iowa Chapter of the National Weather Association will once again be hosting their 14th Annual Severe Storms & Doppler Radar Conference March 25-27, 2010 at the Sheraton Hotel in West Des Moines, IA.

http://www.iowa-nwa.com/conference/

The preliminary agenda was posted today (see url above), and I encourage you all to check it out! Our conference has a general focus on operational Meteorology, particularly with tornadoes. Here is a list of invited speakers for this year's conference:

Roger Hill (Silver Lining Tours)
Tornado Tourism

Tim Samaras
TWISTEX tornado encounters from 2009

Yvette Richardson, Penn State University
Current Understanding of tornadic storms and VORTEX2

Davis Nolan, WKRN-TV, Nashville, TN
The Murfreesboro Tennessee EF4 of April 2009

Greg Carbin, Storm Prediction Center
Overview of Severe Storm Research and Forecasting at SPC

1980 Grand Island "Night of the Twisters"
A look back 30 years later

Jim Cantore, The Weather Channel
The Atlanta Floods of 2009


We will also be trying something new and innovative this year. For our traditional radar workshop on Thursday afternoon, we will be attempting to do an "Interactive Warning Workshop". Attendees will be split into small teams, and you will be given the opportunity to go to town creating/issuing your own severe weather warnings. At the end of the session, we'll run the verification statistics (FAR, POD, CSI), and the winning team might receive some kind of prize (not sure if/what yet - more details later). We're hoping this will be a lot of fun!

Thanks - Hope to see you in March!

Chris

 

[Jen Metcalf]

Sounds good. Too bad that I will not be able to attend. I can't believe that it has been 30 yrs for the Night of the Twisters. I grew up In Grand Island so you remember- more so when you go sledding down Tornado Hill.

 

[Chris Karstens]

Update...

Hi Everyone...

I'd like to post a quick update to the conference agenda and give you a few details regarding the Interactive Radar/Warning Workshop.

A quick reminder: To receive the early registration rate (cheaper) you must register by March 13th!!

All of the invited presenters are still planning to come, with the exception of Jim Cantore. This is a real bummer... we were REALLY looking forward to his presentation. Still, we think we'll have a number of exciting and educational talks. Check out the preliminary agenda here...

http://www.iowa-nwa.com/conference/files/2010_NWA_Agenda.pdf

As mentioned, we'll be doing a new Interactive Radar/Warning Workshop. The plan right now is to split the attendees into small groups consisting of about 5 people. Each group will have a laptop with GRAnalyst and a special program I developed to issue severe weather warnings in GRAnalyst. The simulated event will be sped up 2x, with situational awareness given beforehand. During the event, we'll have live scoring on the main screen, based on POD, FAR, CSI, etc. At the end, we'll review the event, and we hope to have a prize for the winning team - just not sure "what" yet. Here are a few youtube videos I threw together showing how the software works, and a trial run we did a few days ago at ISU. We hope to see you in a few weeks!!

 

[Ryan Wichman]

I have been to this conference each other last 2 years. It is a very underrated conference that always has great presentations. Just looking over the agenda this year I am excited, although I must admit I am not sure if I will be able to attend or not this year. Hopefully I can make it happen with my work schedule, this is a conference I would rather not miss.